Informatics is crucial for enabling advances in biomedical research, practice and education in the 21st century. As we transition to an information-based society, the ability of dental and craniofacial research to achieve its mission is increasingly predicated on its ability to leverage advances in informatics for its core activities. Informatics must become an integral part of the fabric of dental and craniofacial research. In this context, informatics must be understood not only as a source of new, practical computing applications, but also as an area of scientific inquiry in its own right. Dental informatics faces two critical challenges. The first one is to connect itself intimately to the global research agenda of dental and craniofacial research. Dental informatics must support the goals of dental and craniofacial research, such as those articulated in the mission of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research and in the research agenda of the American Dental Association. Consequently, the second challenge is to define the germane research problems that dental informatics should address in order to do so. The objectives of this conference are to provide a forum for dental and craniofacial researchers, dental informatics researchers, and medical informatics researchers to 1) identify areas of integration and cooperation between dental and craniofacial research and dental informatics, and 2) define research challenges and frontiers for dental informatics. This invitation only working conference is planned to take place over a two-day period in the Washington, DC, area in the spring of 2003. Attendees will come from the fields of medical and dental informatics, dental and craniofacial research, the NIH and the corporate sector. To open the conference to a more global audience, we intend to broadcast presentations through a synchronous Web site. Remote participants will be able to interact by chat and e-mail. The conference will be preceded by an intensive preparatory phase that includes a conference Web site, background papers, regular e-mail updates to invite and other participants, and electronic discussions about conference topics and issues. The conference will have positive and stimulating effects on the efficiency and efficacy with which dental research is conducted; the scale and scope of cooperative projects, especially those involving informatics; the sharing of best practices in research and development; and the transfer of research results into practice and education.